Inside September 28, 2004's Issue

Novel addresses real issues

Book Review
By Amanda Cordle
acord00@highlands.edu
Staff Writer

The dark comedy, “Normal Girl,” by Molly Jong-Fast exhibits a world of overindulgence that the nation has recently come accustomed to, thanks to Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie. Only this normal girl, Miranda Woke, does not live a “simple life.” She may be a fresh member of the “itlist” in Manhattan, but her life parties and drugs turns sour very quickly, and the only thing that keeps this story sweet is

Miranda's witty account of her downfall and recovery. Miranda is nineteen and fabulous.” She works two days week at an art gallery in Greenwich Village and takes four-hour lunches, which is very taxing for her to do between cocaine parties and starving herself. Her mother has had five husbands and is looking for number six. Her closest friend, Janice, is a crack addict that has repeatedly been committed to a mental asylum, and who Miranda believes has just murdered her own boyfriend, Jeff.

The novel begins with Miranda on her way to Jeff's funeral. During the cab ride to the service, she does a few lines of cocaine to ready herself for the paparazzi lined funeral procession. As she walks into the temple with her ageing socialite mother, Miranda recalls that it has been ages since she has felt any type of emotion that wasn't drug induced. Half way through the service, she must go “powder her nose.” The guilt she feels over Jeff's death sends her into selfdestruction overdrive.

Miranda throws a party at her mother's posh home and everything is destroyed, which gets her an undesirable mention on page six of the “New York Times.” Her friends start losing interest in her due to her attitude, which causes her to become more wildly out of control. Miranda ends up drinking a homeless man's Wild Turkey outside of a nightclub. Her ex boyfriend, Brett, manages to get her through an overdose and takes her to her mother's house where she is whisked from Manhattan to Minnesota for rehab.

After rehab, and some real self-thought, Miranda returns to Manhattan and to Brett. Unlike most of the relationships Miranda has had, this one doesn't involve sex, drugs or partying. It involves eating and talking. There isn't exactly a “happy” ending, but the novel does end with her in transition to a better life. She's going to meetings for her addictions, and working on her relationships with friends and family. While one may not relate to Miranda's drug abuse, almost everyone can relate to her sense of being lonely in a crowd, her need for acceptance, and the desire to be an individual without facing constant chatter from the masses.

Jong-Fast does an incredible job of trying to keep the novel real, even though all of the events may seem absurd to the normal reader. Jong-Fast also doesn't ruin the gritty realness of the novel by trying to make it seem as if everyone will always live happily ever after. She shows that personal relationships have to be worked on, not just left unattended until someone is in need of something. “Normal Girl” is about serious subject matter, but it's handled in a very intelligent and funny way. It's a pretty short novel, but inside the relatively thin book there are so many incredible observations about life and people.

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